Machine for removing leaves and trash from seed-cotton.



0. C. HOUGHTON.

MAGHIHE FOB REMOVING LEAVES AND TRASH FROM SEED COTTON.

7 APPLICATION FILED MAR. B. 1911. 1,D39,4;O2, Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

4 SHEETS-811E111 1.

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0J Ga /36 mm yd w W Va O. C. HOUGHTON.

MACHINE FOR REMOVING LEAVES AND TRASH FROM SEED COTTON.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. s, 1911.

1,039,402 Patented se t24, 1912.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

0. C. HOUGHTON.

MACHINE r011 REMOVING LEAVES AND TRASH PROM SEED COTTON.APPLIOATIbNwlII-BD MAB. 6. 1911.

1,039,402, Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

4 BHEBTS-SHEET 3.

0. 0. HOUGHTON.

MACHINE FOB REMOVING LEAVES AND TRASH mom sum) COTTON.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 6, 1911 1 ,O39,402, Patented Sept 24,1912.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

oitLnY c. nouon'ron, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOB. 'ro II. AND .I. E.BULLOCK,

or cHIcAeo, ILLINOIS.

MACHINE FOR REMOVING LEAVES AND TRASH FROM SEED-COTTON.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 6,1911. Serial No. 612,638.

Patented Sept. 24, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

a citizen of the United States, residing at- Chicago, in the county of-Cook and State of IlllIlOlS, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Machines for Removing Leaves and Trash from Seed-Cotton, of

which the following is .a specification.

This invention relates to improvementin cotton-cleaning mechanism; myobject being to provide such mechanism of simple and Improvedconstruction, and, which may be employedas an adjunct applicable tocot-' ton-picking machines for separating from the cotton, anddiscarding, any green leaves and other trash gathered from the plants inthe picking operation.

While .my improvements ma be. adapted and applied to cotton pickingarvesters of any type, I show them, in the present connection, upon amachine of the well-known construction, wherein the adjacent series ofpicker-spindles extend and revolve in paralel vertical planes, and thecotton is removed from the spindles by suitable stripping mechanism.

In the accompanying drawings-Figure 1 is a vertical section takenlongitudinally through the end-portion of the cotton picker and showingonl such details of construction as are consi ered necessary for a clearunderstanding of the present. invention; Fig. 2, an enlarged broken sideelevation of the rear end-portion of the machine; Fig. 3, a furtherenlarged section on the inclined line 3. in Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a broken andpartly sectional view-showingthe trash-discarding conveyer in sideelevation; Fig. 5, an en larged fragmentary elevation of the side of themachine opposite that shown in 2; Fig. 6, a broken section taken on line6 in Fig. 4; and Fig. 7, an enlarged broken section taken on line 7 inFig. 5.

The horizontal drum 8 equipped with the parallel vertical series ofpicker-spindles. 9,

surrounds the main shaft 10 which is driven indirectly from thedriving-wheels 11. The spindles are driven, as usual, by the rotation ofthedrum' in the advance of the machine, to gather cotton from the plantsover which they move, the speed of relative backward travel of thespindles, while in the plants, a proxir'nating that of the forwardtravel of the machine. As the spindles are withdrawn from the plants thegathered cotton is stripped therefrom by a series of parallel rotatingstripper-disks 13 which inter-mesh with the series of spindles. Thestripperdisks engage the cotton on the spindles and transfer it to andelevate it along the casing-wall 14. Intermeshing with the disks 13 arerotating serrated discharging disks 15 which engage the cotton as it ismoved thereto and discharge it through the opening 16 in the casing 17against the downwardly-defiecting baffle-plate 18 forming an extensionof the casing.

.The mands 1n the market depends to a large extent upon its freedom-fromleaves, twigs, etc. 'It is usual, therefore, after cotton has beenpicked, or harvested, to pass it through a cotton cleaning'machine whichoperates to eliminate, to a more or less extent, the trash which hasbeen gathered with the cotton in the picking or harvesting operation.The cotton as gathered is deposited in baskets, or 'the llkereceptacles, and packed down so that the receptacle .may hold a goodquantity; and the cotton cleaning ma chines are equipped at theirreceiving ends;

generally, with rotary beaters which open up the cotton so. that thecleaning mechanism may act more readily thereon. These beaters crush anyunopened bolls, that may have been gathered, to free the cottoncontained therein, and also tend to break up twigs and dry leaves orshred any green leaves that may be present, While the breaking up oftwigs and dry trash may facilitate their' removal by the cleaningmechanism it has hitherto been impossible to eliminate, with any degreeof thoroughness, the green leaves present, and the very act of breakingor shredding them causes them to discolor the cotton and also makestheir removal therefrom more difficult, thus depreciating themarket'value of the cotton.

It is one of the principal purposes of my invention to provide mechanismwhich will operate to efiectively eliminate any green leaves that areunavoidably gathered with the cotton from standing plants withoutbreaking them up, and thus avoid the depreciation of the value of thecotton due to the discoloring action of such'leaves and their presencein the cotton.

Forming part of the frame of the ma rice which raw, baled cottoncomchine vat opposite sides of the opening '16 are backwardly-extendingarms or brackets 19 supporting the inclined angle-bar posts 20. Securedto the post 20 shown in Figs. 2 and 4 is a bearing-plate 21, and on theopposite post (see Fig. 5) is a bearing plate 22. The lates 21, 22,carry coincident roller-bea'rin boxes 23, 24, for a shaft 25.

Pinned or ot erwise secured to the shaft 1b is a sleeve 26 on which ismounted a series .ofparallel-pickups or disks 27 having serratedperipheries and spaced apart by spacer-collars 28, on the sleeve 26. Thedisks 27 and spacer-collars 28 are clamped 15 in position by theend-clamping plates 29. Mounted on a bearing-boss 30 on the late 21 is astub-shaft 31 on which is journa ed a sleeve 32 forming the hub of asprocketwheel 33 and pinion 34. "The pinion 34' en- 20 gagesa pinion 35on the shaft 25. The

posts 20 carry companion arms or brackets 36 forming bearings for ashaft 37 carryin a series of beater-wheels 38 each forme with peripheralblades or fingers 39 inter- 25 meshing with the'peripheral portions ofthe pick-up disks 27. The pick-up disks 27 rotate at their peripheriesin the suction-opening 40 of a fan-blower casing 41, the fan-wheel 42 ofwhich is mounted upon a shaft 43 journaled in the casing 41 and carryinga sprocket-wheel 44. The fan-blower is mounted between the upper ends ofthe posts 20.

The shaft carrying the stripper-disks 13 is.

35 driven in the usual way from the main shaft 10, andcarries asprocket-wheel 45.

Mounted on the boss 30 is anarm 46 carrying a chain-tensioning roller47; and extending around the sprocket-wheels 45, 33, 4o 44, andtensioning-roller 47 is a drive-chain 48, moving in the directionindicated by the arrow in Fig. 2.

rods 60 hangin from the plates or brackets 21; and pivot'a 1y connectedwith the cheekplates. 56 are threaded-rods 61 passing through openingsin bearing-flanges 62 on the conveyer frame and tightened by means ofnuts 63. The conveyor-frame may be adjusted to different angles on itspivots 49 by lengthening and shortening the rods 60, and theconveyer-belt 58 may be tightened or loosened by turning the nuts 63.The roller .55 carries a sprocket-Wheel 64 driven by a 165 chain 65 froma sprocketwheel 66 on the the pick-ups or disksv 27, whereby, as theshaft 25 andsaidsha'ftcarries' a sprocketwheel 67 which drives asprocket-wheel 68 on the shaft 37 through achain 69.

In operation the gathered cotton dis-. charged through the opening 16against the 7 bafile-plate 18 is deflected onto the conveyerbelt 58 andmoved in the backward direction. The upper stretch of the conveyer-beltis, in practice, an inch more or lessbelow cotton is inoved toward the.dischar eend ofthe conveyor-belt, it is picked up y the disks 27. Afterbeing thus picked up the cotton is operated u on by the beater-wheels38, intermeshing with the disks 27, which comb out of the cotton anyleaves and other trash causing them to fall upon the conveyer-belt andbe carried over its discharge end. -After passing the beater-wheels thecotton is moved to the suction-opening of the fan-blower 41 whichoperates to withdraw the cotton'from the pick-up disks 27 and dischargeit into'a. basket 70 placed upon the machine. The conveyer-frame shouldbe adjusted by means of its rods to cause the belt to travelsufficiently close 'to the pick-u wheels to prevent any of the cottonfrom. sin .lost, while permitting the leaves and tra to be discharged.The cotton when stripped from the spindles 9 is in an unpacked orfluflfy state, and reaches the conveyer in small, open and more or lessso arate bunches, thus avoiding the massing o the cotton' and obviatingthe-necessity of o ening it up with heaters, or the like, w ich ofnecessity break up or shred the green leaves. As the cotton in thisloose condition is. picked ,up by the disks or saws 27 and moved acrossthe revolving fingers 39,- the latter operate to comb out the trashwithout bre'akin up or shredding the green leaves, and the eavesbeingleft intact are easily freed-from the cotton, thrown back upon thetraveling belt 58 and discharged over the end of the same. As thegathered bunches of cotton 'are 'deposited upon the belt-they are actedupon by the cleaning mechanism, and the. trash carried by one bunch.will, forthe most part, at least, be

combed out and moved out of the way before the next directly followinggathered bunch is picked up by the saws.

The foregoing description of my. improved cotton-cleaning mechanism as Inow prefer to provide it, has been given for clearness o underst'andinonly, my intentio'n being that no undue itation should be understoodtherefrom, and that the claims which follow shall be construed as abroadly as the prior state of the artmay 2 permit.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A machine of the character described,'

comprising means for gathering cotton in 13o for removing the cleanedcotton from the pick-ups, whereby green leaves gathered with the cottonare unbroken and eliminated therefrom.

2. A cleaner for seed cotton, including a frame structure constructed toreceive the cleaning mechanism, said cleaning mechaspaced relationthereto, said conveyer extending beyond the lowermost peripheral marginsof said pick-ups, a rotating separator located above saidconveyervcomprlsing members having fingers constructed to enter theperipheral spaces between the pick-ups, a pneumatic apparatus locatedabove said pick-ups, and a receptacle constructed to receive the cleanedcotton, said pneumatic apparatus being constructed to detach the c eanedcotton from said ickups and to conduct said cotton to sai receptacle.

ORLEY O. HOUGHTON. In presence of R. A. RAYMOND, J. G. ANDERSON.

